Tarawa Living Memorial
Summary
Never Forget Our Veterans Foundation has developed a plan for a Tarawa Living Memorial to honor the veterans of the Battle of Tarawa, improve the living conditions of the people of South Tarawa in the Republic of Kiribati, and reduce the amount of garbage dumped into the Pacific Ocean. The primary objectives of this initiative include:
The secondary objectives of this initiative include:
Background The impact of WWII and decades of overpopulation on South Tarawa have left the majority of the local population living in a garbage dump. On the islet of Betio, where more than 1,100 U.S. Marines were killed during and after coming ashore on "Red Beach" to fight Japanese forces in November of 1943, more than 20,000 people, many of them children, live packed into less than two square miles of land. Clean water is scarce, sewer services are rudimentary, sanitation is non-existent, and the local government has no resources to effectively improve the health and well-being of their own people. Beneath the surface of Betio rest the remains of up to 500 Americans killed during the Battle of Tarawa. Still listed as Missing in Action, these Marines and Sailors paid the ultimate price for our freedom, and the U.S. government, despite making cursory efforts in the years since the war, left these men behind to spend eternity beneath pig sties, latrines, and garbage pits. The treatment of American war dead in Tarawa is in stark contrast to what can be seen at foreign battlefields and cemeteries around the world, including those managed by the American Battle Monuments Commission in places like Normandy (France), Florence (Italy), or Manila, (Philippines). Though such a setting may never be attainable in Tarawa, much can be done to clean up the battlefield, improve the living conditions of the local population, and honor the men who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that others may live in freedom. |
Above: Scenes depicting the pollution plaguing the people of Betio and "Red Beach," where more than 3,400 U.S. Marines were killed or wounded in November 1943.
Photos © Jeremy Edward Shiok.
Above: A comparison between the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer in France and Red Beach on Betio in Tarawa, a pollution-ridden islet where no cemetery exists to honor the hundreds of Marines buried there in unmarked graves and listed as Missing in Action since the Battle of Tarawa, which was fought from November 20-23, 1943.
Photos © Jeremy Edward Shiok.
Above: Kurt Hiete (far right) with Hubert Caloud, then Assistant Superintendent of the Manila American Cemetery (far left), Anote Tong, President of Kiribati, and Nei Meme, First Lady of Kiribati, after a wreath laying ceremony at the 2nd Marine Division Memorial on November 20, 2013, on the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Tarawa.
Photo © Jeremy Edward Shiok.
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